The winter of 1946-47 was one of the worst on record, and certainly one of the snowiest of the last 150 years. The really wintry weather arrived in late January. Once it came it was here to stay! Milder weather didn’t return to the British Isles until the middle of March. February 1947 was a very dull month and also a windy and frosty month. The dull weather did have one advantage though - it prevented really cold nights from occurring until the end of the month when parts of southern England dropped to between -17C and -21C. In spite of the absence of really cold nights for much of the month, February 1947 was nevertheless a very cold month. It was the coldest February since records began in 1659. Average maximum temperatures for the month were close to freezing in many places. In Oxford temperatures were below freezing from 6pm on the 10th to 6am on the 26th! Further east, ice floes were observed in the sea off Whitstable in Kent. In Dorset, every night between 16th January and 11th March except 2nd and 3rd February was frosty. March was even worse than February. The first half of the month remained wintry. Blizzards and heavy snow affected the country from time to time. For example, on the 4-6th a snowstorm affecting most of England and Wales deposited 40cm snow in Birmingham and caused drifts close to 5m high in parts of southern Wales. Southern England, meanwhile, was affected by an ice storm. Temperatures dropped sharply during this period and one of the coldest March nights on record followed. Later in the month, on the 16th, gales affected the UK and in some parts of southern England gusts were close to 100 mph.

Having been born on 16th of February I remained in hospital with jaundice until the 13th March when I was taken home to York Terrace and according to family lore spent several hours in my pram outside in the snow.....